Ahead of Election, NDLEA Destroys 72,286kg Drugs in Edo Forest After Gun Battle
...Arrests Suspect, Recovers 2 Rifles, Others
Ahead of the general elections on Saturday, operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have destroyed 72,286 kilograms of warehoused skunk and five hectares of its plantation at Ujiogba Forest Reserve in Esan West LGA, Edo State.
The special operation carried out on Wednesday, February 22, followed credible intelligence that some cartels had warehoused hundreds of jumbo bags of the illicit substance inside the thick forest of the reserve for distribution to some states ahead of the elections.
Director of Media and Advocacy of the anti-narcotic agency, Femi Babafemi stated this known in a statement made available to journalNG on Thursday.
Babafemi explained that the operation could however not go on immediately until after several road blocks set up by armed guards of the drug lords were cleared and overpowered by the superior firepower of Strike Force officers of the Agency in a gun duel.
“After the initial resistance, two rifles, spent cartridges of short guns and an empty shell of AK47 rifle were recovered while a 24-year-old suspect, Calvary Essien, was arrested.
“After the gun fight, the NDLEA operatives successfully descended on a big warehouse constructed with wood and zinc containing: 100 jumbo bags of cannabis sativa weighing 3.2 tons; 5,000 bags of cannabis weighing 65 tons; and 137 bags of cannabis seeds weighing 4.66 tons, totaling 72.86 tons.
“Seven bags of cannabis and one bag of its seeds were subsequently taken out of the warehouse for further investigation and prosecution of suspects while the rest was set ablaze”, he said.
This is coming on the heels of a similar operation on January 18 in the Opuje forest in Owan West Local Government Area of the state where massive warehouses and tents storing over 317,417 kilograms (317.4 metric tons) of the psychoactive substance were destroyed and set ablaze in a two-day operation.
At least, a police impersonator, Omoruan Theophilus, 37, who was parading as a Police Inspector to convey the drugs from the forests to the cities and three others: Aigberuan Jacob, 42; Ekeinde Anthony Zaza, 53, and Naomi Patience Ohiewere, 42, were arrested in connection with the drugs.
In his reaction, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) said that taking the battle to the doorsteps of the cartels deep in the forests is to attack the menace of drug supply from the source and to also send the right message to the barons that there is no safe haven for them and their investments anywhere in Nigeria.
